UPDATE
If you were up early, you may have seen the below article regarding Norwich signing Sam Byram from West Ham.
It seems after the leak of a picture online on the club’s official website overnight, that waiting until 5pm is just not practical today and so, Sam Byram has been announced on a four-year-deal.
Sam Byram becomes our fourth signing of the summer, joining on a four-year deal from West Ham United! 🙌 #ncfc
— Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) July 16, 2019
He’s been unlucky with injuries and missed eight months of last season after a knee operation but he’s at a good age and he’s hungry with something to prove. He’s also pretty versatile and can play further up the right side of the pitch too.
He’s already in Germany with his new teammates and he will wear the number 3 shirt.
Welcome to Norwich, Sam!
Here’s our original story and how it broke…
Norwich City could be about to announce the signing of West Ham Defender, Sam Byram after a story appeared on the internet apparently showing a picture of Byram in the new City home shirt.
ClaretandHugh.info are carrying the report and they say that the Canaries accidentally uploaded the picture of Byram in a first-team shirt to the official club website in the early hours of this morning.
Obviously, it’s not there any longer, if it actually ever was but ClaretandHugh.info do have the picture on their site, so click the above link and have a look yourself. However, I cannot verify this actually happened for you.
I can’t admit to being awake and scouring the internet in the wee small hours but this is an interesting report and assuming it’s true, Byram will provide some experienced back-up to Max Aarons, something that has been needed since the departure of Ivo Pinto and likely departure of Ben Marshall, who isn’t a right-back anyway, in my opinion.
It appears that Norwich City have won the race to sign Sam Byram having beaten a number of championship sides to his signature. Due to his contract being up next summer he has gone for a small fee of £750k (with clauses added into the deal) and takes 25k a week off our wage bill pic.twitter.com/oNzuHNgPuU
— ExWHUEmployee (@ExWHUEmployee) July 16, 2019
The fee being quoted is £750k, which is pretty modest in the current market for the 25-year-old who cost the Hammers £4m from Leeds United back in 2016 and who has made 36 appearances in an injury-ravaged time in East London and has one year left on his contract there.
He made 139 appearances for Leeds which earned him that move to the Premier League. Last season he made just 8 appearances on-loan for Nottingham Forest and basically, he’s ripe for a new challenge assuming he can stay fit. He’s at a great age and hopefully, Daniel Farke can work his coaching magic again for a player that has lost his way a little.
OTBC